By Qianyu (Margaret) Cheng
The food in dorm is always highlight of my day when I lived in university housing. After a whole tiring day of study, it is a pleasure to just sit down and enjoy the food buffet that university staff proudly present. To tempt our taste buds, there are also several special food nights, and those secret recipes enlighten the study days.
First thing I want to point out is Taste of Asia. Every Wednesday night, in ISR the dining hall will be decorated to be like a Asian restaurant with lanterns: it’s like spring festival all year round and there are always so much culinary to enjoy. Vietnam pho, different favors of Japanese Mochi, you name it. Every week we can find something different.
The second is Field of Greens. It is always crucial to eat healthy, no matter if it’s in a specialty restaurant or not. However, Field of Greens, all weekday through in the noon at LAR, provides us with a whole new concept of eating healthily. Fresh, healthy vegetables, as well as other dishes, help you stay healthy and be energetic all the day.
Also, Oodles is my all the time favorite. Provided in Busey-Evens every Friday noon, we can find out a new menu every week. All sorts of pasta, Moroccan couscous, ziti and on site made noodles dish, it is a paradise of noodles. What’s more, some unique desserts are served too.
Additionally, during special times of year like Christmas and Spring festival, dining hall will be decorated and full of holiday atmosphere. For instance, around Christmas, dining hall will be full of Christmas-related goodies like ginger bread houses, eggnog and turkeys. The whole dining hall even smell like turkey!
Also, Pirate Fest is another exciting dining event. At that time in Ikenberry dining hall, a live band will come and dining hall will be decorated like a pirate ship.
That being said, as an international students, although I love food in dining hall, every now and then I still miss authentic flavor of my hometown. For me, at first when I got to U of I as a freshman, I was not used to the buffet style and I found it hard to find the food I want. Some of the food is so different. For instance, I am still not that into salad since where I come from we do not eat raw vegetable that much. It was also a hard time for me to figure out what each salad dressing is and do I like the taste or not. However, as time goes on, me and my friends came up with different ways to enjoy the dining hall food, such as adding sugar on raw tomato, or finally figuring out what salad dressing is the best (honey mustard!) or try to eat salad together with ice cream (it’s actually pretty good).
Specialty restaurants, however, give us variety of choices to explore dishes we like and also remind us of the taste at home. They add a huge bonus on dining hall, help us explore the taste around the world, and also provide us with authentic taste that transport us back to our hometown. Definitely do not miss out on the special food nights in the university housing dining halls!
